Last November, Alessandro Belmonte (IMT School for Advanced Studies Lucca) and Michael Rochlitz published a paper showing how Vladimir Putin strategically recalls memories from the chaotic 1990s to consolidate his hold on power. They then generalized the idea in a theoretical model that has just came out in Economic Systems. In the model, a dictator strategically reactivates traumatic collective memories about a past experience with democracy, to convince the population that a democratic alternative is inferior to the autocratic status quo. The authors find that a more traumatic experience with democracy in the past renders propaganda more efficient and increases the level of authoritarian political support per unit of memory recollection. The findings are supported with panel data evidence from 103 countries.